ESP32S3 FLASH DOWNLOAD TOOL doesn't connect

Development Tools Uploading
1

I reached step 4 and the roll back still inactive.

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Hi @wolfrose.

I have found that when the driver installation gets into this state, it can be solved by uninstalling and then reinstalling the drivers. After that, the "roll back" option should be enabled.

I'll provide instructions you can follow to do that:

  1. Close Arduino IDE if it is running.
  2. Connect the Arduino board to your computer with a USB cable.
  3. Open the Windows Device Manager.
  4. Select View > Devices by type from the Device Manager menus.
  5. Open the "View" menu.
  6. If there is a ✓ to the left of the "Show hidden devices" menu item, click on "Show hidden devices" to disable it.
  7. Open the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree.
  8. You should see a port identified as "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section (where "COMn" is some serial port e.g., COM4). Double click on that item.
    The "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog will open.
  9. Select the "Driver" tab of the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.
  10. Click the "Uninstall Device" button.
    The "Uninstall Device" dialog will open.
  11. Check the box next to "☐ Attempt to remove the driver for this device.".
  12. Click the "Uninstall" button.
    The "Uninstall Device" and "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialogs will close.
  13. Disconnect the USB cable of the Arduino board from your computer.
  14. Reconnect the USB cable of the Arduino board to your computer.
  15. Wait for the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" device to appear under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree.
    :exclamation: This will take a couple of minutes as Windows must first automatically reinstall the driver.
    :exclamation: It might appear first as a "USB2.0-Serial" device under the "Other devices section of the tree. Just wait for a little longer and it will appear in its final place under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section.
  16. Click the following link to download the previous version of the driver from the chip manufacturer's website:
    https://www.wch-ic.com/downloads/file/65.html?time=2023-03-16%2022:57:59
  17. Wait for the download to finish.
  18. Run the downloaded CH341SER.EXE file.
  19. A "User Account Control" dialog may now appear asking "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?". Click the "Yes" button.
  20. A "DriverSetup(X64)" dialog will open. Click the "INSTALL" button in the dialog.
  21. Wait for the driver installation to finish, as indicated by the appearance of a "Driver install success!" dialog.
  22. Click the "OK" button in the "Driver install success!" dialog.
    The dialog will close.
  23. Click the X icon at the top right of the "DriverSetup(X64)" dialog.
    The dialog will close.
  24. Switch back to the Windows "Device Manager".
  25. Double click on the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" device under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section.
    The "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog will open.
  26. Select the "Driver" tab of the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.
  27. Click the "Update driver" button.
    An "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog will open.
  28. Click on "Search automatically for drivers" in the "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog.
  29. You should now see the driver installation wizard update the driver. Wait for the update to finish, as indicated by the message "Windows has successfully updated your drivers" in the dialog.
  30. Click the "Close" button in the "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog.
    The dialog will close.
  31. Click the "Roll Back Driver" button in the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.
    The "Driver Package rollback" dialog will open.
  32. Click the radio button next to "My apps don't work with this driver" in the "Driver Package rollback" dialog .
  33. Click the "Yes" button.
    The "Driver Package rollback" dialog will close.
  34. Click the "Close" button in the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.

Now start Arduino IDE again and repeat whatever you were doing before when you encountered that error before. Hopefully this time you will not encounter that "can't set com-state" error during the sketch upload.

1 Like
3

I did all the steps, and still the same result.

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My board is really challenging ! I tried to program it through other platforms, flash tool, platformio and arduino ide.

I have two yellow esp32 tft capacitive boards:

  1. 3.5" running by esp32 wroom --> this one is working with no issues.
  2. 4.3" running by esp32 s3 --> this is the one that won't work. It still run the demo code but I can't program it.
4

I can see from your screenshot that the intended driver version ("3.7.2022.01") is installed. It is the version "3.8.2023.2" that is incompatible with certain "CH340" USB chips.

So please try uploading a sketch to your board again now that you have the older driver version installed. Hopefully this time the upload will be successful.

1 Like
5

I tried with the flash tool, but no response. It continues to connect but it can't.

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6

I tried to reset the device, no affect.

But when I press RST then boot, it stops the connect process and issues this window:

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The driver rollback procedure I provided here is only intended to fix one specific cause of a sketch upload failure (the combination of and certain batches of sketchy "CH340" USB chips with driver version 3.8.2023.2). There are many other unrelated causes of an upload failure (or firmware flashing failure in your case).

Since you are using the driver version that does not cause upload failures, yet your failure persists, it seems likely that your failure has a different cause.

Unfortunately I don't have any experience using this "ESP32S3 FLASH DOWNLOAD TOOL" (I have used the ESP8266 equivalent a few times years ago, but I don't think that experience is of much value here).

This should be done before you initiate the the flashing process by clicking the "START" button in the "ESP32S3 FLASH DOWNLOAD TOOL" window.

Try this procedure:

  1. Press and hold the "boot" button.
  2. Press and release the "reset" button.
  3. Release the "boot" button.
  4. Click the "START" button in the "ESP32S3 FLASH DOWNLOAD TOOL" window.

Does the flashing procedure finish successfully after you do that, or do you still have the problem of it remaining forever in that state where it prints the "....."?

1 Like
8

Yep, I tried both methods, before powering up the board and after powering up.

The small board works perfectly without any issues.

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I'm installing linux ubuntu now and try there.

It happened with me before with arduino mega board that is using CH340 and only programmed in linux.

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OK, problem solved here:
https://github.com/espressif/esptool/issues/682

Installing old CH340 driver solved the problem.

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